ALCOAST 277/17 - SEP 2017 FOUNDATION FOR COAST GUARD HISTORY (FCGH) AWARDS

united states coast guard

R 191200 SEP 17
FM COMDT COGARD WASHINGTON DC//CG-092//
To ALCOAST
UNCLAS //N05700//
ALCOAST 277/17
COMDTNOTE 5700
SUBJ:  FOUNDATION FOR COAST GUARD HISTORY (FCGH) AWARDS
1. The Foundation for Coast Guard History has announced the winners
of the annual FCGH awards.
2. Unit Awards:
   A.  Large Unit Award:  The winner of the Large Unit award is
Training Center Cape May.  With approximately 80% of the service’s workforce
passing through its halls, Training Center Cape May understands and embraces
its important role as keeper of the service’s history.  But the Training Center
is not just a showplace of the Coast Guard’s past for the recruits, it’s the
most visited unit in the service, hosting more than 40,000 visitors annually.
It’s also home to many reunions, as, for example, in 2016, reunion groups from
the cutters Bibb, Westwind and Duane reconnected on the grounds.  Buildings at
the TRACEN Cape May are dedicated in memory of the service’s most widely
recognized heroes (Douglas Munro, Ida Lewis, Richard Etheridge,
Charles W. David, etc.).  Most recently, TRACEN Cape May dedicated its seamanship
building in memory of Bernard Webber, the hero of the 1952 Pendleton rescue off
Chatham, Massachusetts.
   B.  Small Unit Award:  The winner of the Small Unit award is Aids to
Navigation Team (ANT) Coos Bay.  In celebration of their 40th anniversary,
ANT Coos Bay dedicated their building on 29 April 2016 in honor of Nils P.
Adamson and Chester N. Adamson, civilian United States Lighthouse Service
(USLHS) members who ran the unit from 1911 through 1976.  ANT Coos Bay invited
descendants of those two men to be present for the ceremony and share their
family history of working aids to navigation in the area.  During the ceremony,
historical artifacts were on display, and the crew built a display “visible to
all visitors highlighting the activities of the civilian USLHS members that
maintained the Aids to Navigation in the Coos Bay area prior to the establishment
of ANT Coos Bay.”  During the year, members of the crew also began the process of
identifying, restoring and maintaining the gravesites of deceased Life-Saving
Service and Lighthouse Service personnel in the Marshfield Pioneer Cemetery.
The OIC also joined historian Tim Dring, CDR, USN (Ret.) in compiling a 76-page
historical summary of aids to navigation in Coos Bay, forwarding a copy to the
Coast Guard Historian’s Office (CG-09231).
3. The FCGH also recognizes individuals who have made important contributions
in preserving and presenting the U.S. Coast Guard’s rich and varied heritage.
The recipients of this year’s Individual Achievement Award are:
   A.  Dr. Sally Snowman.  Dr. Snowman is the first female keeper of Boston
Lighthouse in its 301-year history.  She oversees a staff of 100 volunteer
historical site interpreters who welcome approximately 3,000 visitors per year
to Little Brewster Island, working with numerous nonprofit and governmental
agencies to identify and train those volunteers.  Toward that end, she wrote
the first interpretive historical guide to train Coast Guard Auxiliarists,
Park Rangers and her army of volunteers.  She is also the author of the
definitive history of the lighthouse, Boston Light: A Historical Perspective. 
During 2016, as the lighthouse celebrated its tercentennial anniversary, Dr.
Snowman conducted outreach consisting of more than 100 presentations to an
additional 2,500 people.  She coordinated the safety and education of
visitors to the island during CEU Providence’s $1.5 million lighthouse
restoration project on the island, helping prepare for the 300th anniversary
celebration in September 2016, attended by Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard
Paul Zukunft. 
   B.  Dr. Richard Zuczek.  Responding to the concern of then-Commandant of
the Coast Guard Admiral Robert Papp, among others, that cadets at the Coast
Guard Academy were not being taught the history of their own service, Dr. Zuczek
in 2012 began development of the institution’s first ever academic Coast
Guard history course.  Since that year, 1,241 future leaders of the Coast Guard
have taken the course in 60 sections under 30 military and civilian faculty
members.  Cadets have learned about the well-known heroes of the Coast Guard,
but also themes spread across all missions and from the perspectives of all
Coast Guard communities, while also “raising important questions about race
and gender by examining the experiences of African-Americans and women in the
service.”  The course includes walking tours of the campus, an in-depth
exploration of the Coast Guard History Museum, lectures by guest speakers and
more.  Dr. Zuczek has expanded the course’s impact by delivering it in
shortened form at the Leadership
Development Center for 120 Midgrade Officer and Civilian Transition course
students, and by speaking to interested public groups about Coast Guard history.
   C.  Wayne Ormsbee and PO Keisha Kerr.  Civilian Wayne Ormsbee and his
daughter, Petty Officer Keisha Kerr, have spent the last five years re-enacting
the Coast Guard Mounted Beach Patrol of World War II.  As volunteer interpreters,
they have scoured the internet for authentic uniforms and equipment for use in
their historical interpretations as parts of parades, civic celebrations,
veterans’ events and horse shows.  First Coast Guard District External Affairs
interviewed them over a two-week period and produced media that reached more
than 29,500 people via the Coast Guard Compass Blog, Cape Cod Daily News,
CapeCod.com and NH1 News.  Mr. Ormsbee plans to continue the reenactments as a
single rider as PO Kerr relocates with her family to Guam for PCS.
   D.  LT Jason Brownlee and LT Amanda Montour.  LT Jason Brownlee and LT
Amanda Montour served as Air Station Houston’s Aviation Centennial Team in 2016
to develop “a comprehensive public affairs advertising plan to celebrate 100 years
of Coast Guard Aviation” in the nation’s fourth largest city.  They coordinated
20 static displays, 24 flight and SAR demonstrations, 52 speaking engagements and
utilized social media to reach 1.3 million people during their campaign.  High
visibility moments included Super Bowl LI and the NCAA Final Four men’s basketball
tournament, a “Flight Suit Formal,” a ceremonial cake cutting on the birthday of
the Coast Guard’s first aviator, Elmer F. Stone, and more.  LT Brownlee and LT
Montour arranged for one of the Air Station’s mechanics to fly to the Aviation
Logistics Center in Elizabeth City, NC, to help restore CGNR 1426 in preparation for
enshrinement in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
4. Letters of recognition will also go to the following nominees:
   A.  LCDR Matthew Kroll
   B.  R. Keith Colby, LDCR USCG (Ret.)
   C.  SK2 Leander Hicks
   D.  Miss Megan Gimple
   E.  Auxiliarist John W. Keyes
5. The Foundation for Coast Guard History was formed on 4 August 1999 as a
nonprofit organization.  Its objectives are to provide support for the U.S. Coast
Guard Historian’s Office, encourage studies relating to the history of our service,
and accord recognition to individuals and organizations that contribute to the goals
of the FCGH.  Inquiries and suggestions can be submitted to the Foundation for Coast
Guard History via its website: http://www.fcgh.org.
6. RDML P. Gautier, Director of Governmental and Public Affairs, sends.
7. Internet release authorized.